


White Lilacs (Innocence and Youth)

by AlmondRose



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Damian is dead, Gen, everyone is mourning, i made myself cry with this one, poor baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 09:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7166264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmondRose/pseuds/AlmondRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Colin Wilkes goes to visit Damian's grave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	White Lilacs (Innocence and Youth)

**Author's Note:**

> um...so I've never written Colin before, but I tried? So if he's out of character, it's because I haven't read much of him or written any of him before.

Alfred let Colin in. By now, the boy knew his way through the manor and to the back yard, which was more like the back side of the property. Colin walked in the grass, wading over to the graves. There were a lot. Too many, in Colin’s opinion. He walked past Thomas and Martha Wayne, past Jason Todd. He stopped at Damian’s grave. As usual, Dick was sitting on the bench facing the graves, looking numb. Colin knew he was barely attuned to the world. He felt bad for him. He knew how much Dick meant to Damian, so he figured Damian must have meant the same to Dick.

 

Colin sat down in front of his friend’s grave. He crossed his legs and stared. He used to talk to it, but he had run out of things to say. Now he just stared at it until it was time to go. Sometimes it felt like a long time to wait and sometimes it felt like no time at all. He stared at the stone--it wasn’t worn quite yet, which always shocked Colin, it felt like it had been _years_ since Damian died. Colin traced the words engraved on the stone with his eyes. He’d long since memorized it, of course, but there wasn’t much else to do. Dick wasn’t one for conversation, and Colin would stop coming--he didn’t come every day, but a few times a week--but it felt _wrong,_ somehow, to abandon his best friend’s grave.

 

Some time later, or maybe not long at all, some flowers appeared in his peripheral vision. Colin turned to see a blonde girl in a purple hoodie, clutching a bouquet of white flowers. The girl looked steely. She put the flowers down in front of the grave, then sat down next to him. Colin scooted over a little, then shifted his attention to the girl. She was staring rigidly at the grave. He could see tears welling up in her blue eyes.

 

“Y-you were his friend, right?” she said, sniffling. “He called you his friend?”

 

“I think so,” Colin said. The girl wiped her eyes.

 

“That’s good,” she said. “I guess I taught him something.” Colin wasn’t sure how to respond to that. The girl didn’t look at him. He looked at the grave, too. _Damian Wayne._ They sat in silence for too long. Suddenly she made a choked noise. He turned to face her, and she started sobbing into her sleeve.

 

“H-he was too y-young,” she cried. “W-why did he have to die?”

 

“Uh….” Colin said. She continued to weep. Colin caught words like, “Should have been there,” and “It’s supposed to be even Robins, dammit,” and “Did he even know he was loved?” The last one made Colin the saddest, because he wasn’t sure if Damian _did_ know. Colin knew that Bruce and Dick loved Damian--Dick’s vigil and Bruce’s rage/revenge fits proved that. From the way everyone talked at Damian’s funeral, Colin knew that someone named Stephanie loved Damian--even though she wasn’t there, for some reason. Colin knew that Damian was his best friend ever, so he loved Damian, too. He wished, suddenly, that he had somehow conveyed that. The blonde girl kept crying into her hands. Her words became muffled. Colin tentatively reached out a hand and patted her shoulder. She gave no sign she had felt it. Colin withdrew his hand and hugged his knees.

 

He stared at the white flowers laying on the dark grass at the base of Damian’s grave. He heard footsteps from behind him and Alfred’s voice said, “Time to leave, Master Colin.” Colin turned to look at the butler and nodded. He stood up and took two steps after Alfred, before turning back at the blonde girl.

 

“W-will you be okay?” he asked her.

 

“She will be,” Alfred said, resting a hand on his shoulder. Colin turned to face him, surprised. “Miss Stephanie has an extraordinary ability for bouncing back from pain. She will be fine. We all will be.” Colin nodded and followed Alfred out of the yard. He cast one look back, at Stephanie crying in front of the grave and Dick sitting on the bench, unmoving.

 

The next time Colin visited, Dick was still there, keeping vigil. Stephanie was not there, of course, but her withered white flowers still sat at the base of the grave.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for this. For happy feels, go read "In Dick Grayson's Apartment", which can be read as a sequel to this. 
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment :)


End file.
